Emma Blackthorne - A love of darkness
by semarmont
Summary: Emma Blackthorne runs into Daryl and Aaron on the outskirts of Alexandria. She is a 22 year old medical student/survivor from Virginia. This is my first fan fic. Hope you like it! A follow would be nice :)
1. Chapter 1

"You're handy with a crossbow when it comes to putting an arrow through walkers. Squirrels on the other hand aren't really your forte," Aaron kneels alongside Daryl on a dewy patch of wild grass, eager to catch a glimpse of the backwoods critter who scurried away at the sound of their human whispers.

"Maybe if you'd shut your trap I could stun the little sucker," Daryl says wiping the sweat of his sunburned cheek onto his bulky shoulder. He points his crossbow over the tangled bush again, searching for the ninja squirrel that did back flips when it came face to face with a deadly weapon. Daryl and Aaron had been out on the road all day scouting potential recruits for Alexandria. Burnt fuel was taking a toll on the both of them. They needed protein, even if it was in the form of a three pound squirrel. Water, food, and trusting that no one has the power to protect your life but yourself are key components in surviving the real world, away from Alexandria's pearly white safe haven that is. Nothing is safe out here. This is the real world and Daryl knew it better than anyone else.

"I see him," Aaron points to the bucktoothed fur ball hiding underneath a canopy of yellow flowers. Daryl squints his right eye and prepares to shoot when suddenly he hears a twig snap.

"What the hell?" Daryl murmurs to himself as the squirrel bolts away. Someone else is nearby. Or worse, the wolves, baiting them into death.

Daryl raises his aim, his eyes intensify with the red alert of a threat.

"Who's out there? Show yourselves!"

A daunting silence follows. Aaron pulls out his Swiss Army Knife and checks the trail behind him. The growl of hungry walkers echoes into Daryl's ears. He can see them now, staggering in the distance like disoriented animatronics.

Just then a young women with hair blacker than a raven's feather appears in the fading sunlight. She is dirty, her ivory skin splattered with vivid droplets of scarlet red blood.

"Who are you," Daryl interrogates the young women, his finger stiff on the trigger unable to shoot.

"My name is Emma Blackthorne," the girl finally says clenching a pocket knife in her hand. There is a strength in her bloodshot blue eyes, a strength Daryl has seen before. A strength that reminds him of his long lost Beth. "Please don't shoot me."

"Whatcha doing out here all by your lonesome?" Daryl asks lowering his weapon. Emma shivers like a newborn puppy.

"I was…" she begins to speak but stops to sob. Her eyes wander for a moment.

"Well?" Daryl studies her distraught figure trembling.

"I was with my boyfriend!" Emma cries helplessly. "Those animals …they took him!"

"Which animals? The walkers?" Aaron asks in a friendly tone.

"No, not the walkers. It was those savage men. The ones dressed in all black, like him," she sobs and nods her head at Daryl. "They beat him until he stopped screaming and then they took him. You have to help me find him! You have to!"


	2. Chapter 2 Enemy

"Uhh Daryl, I think it's time we get going," Aaron mutters with a frantic look on his face, breaking the magnetic gaze between Daryl and Emma Blackthorne. It was love at first sight. A love that could kill all three of them if they didn't get moving now! The walkers were close, chomping at the air thirsty for blood. Daryl needed to get Emma back to Alexandria, if it was the last thing he did.

"You stay with us, you hear?"" Daryl marches toward Emma, taking her soft hand in his. Butterfly's flutter in his stomach.

"But what about Eli?" Emma asks unmoved. Daryl looks at her perplexed, thinking for a moment.

"Whose?" he pauses and realizes that Eli is Emma's boyfriend. God why did she have to have a boyfriend? he thought. She was so beautiful. "We'll talk about it when we get back."

"Get back? Get back where?" she asks as he gently tugs her forward. He can't tell if she is shaking from his touch or if she is still shattered by her traumatic memory.

"A little place called Alexandria. You'll be safe there. You can trust me darling," Daryl says with a twinkle in his diamond blue eyes. And suddenly Emma feels a safety she hasn't felt in a long time. A safety that she felt before all of this nightmare.

"Okay," she says allowing herself to go with him. Aaron tags behind as they dash into the trees, stabbing a few slow moving walkers in their path. Earlier in the day Daryl and Aaron marked the trees with X's so that they could remember their way back home.

After a half an hour of running in the darkness guided by a dim flashlight they make it to Alexandria. Emma is overwhelmed by what she sees. Sturdy walls… a gate. This is what Eli was searching for. If only she believed him sooner. If only they hadn't made a campfire that night. If only The Wolves hadn't captured him.

Aaron gives Emma and Daryl a corny car salesman type smile before leading them to the gate. A dented voice box awaits them. Aaron speaks into it as if he owns the place.

"Aaron Rodgers, Daryl Dixon, and recruit"

A dim static muffle comes on the other end.

"Come in…" the man's voice replies sinisterly. Daryl finds this odd. Aaron can't put his finger on whose voice it is. Maybe it's Ricks. When they left Rick was still recovering from a bad sinus infection, so it could be him. Or maybe it was someone else, mimicking Darth Vader.

"Don't let them scare you, we all went through the ringer at one point or another," Daryl tells Emma stepping in front of her beat up figure. He didn't want anyone to judge her the way he had been judged when he first walked into Alexandria. She didn't deserve it.

The gate slowly opens. " _Clunk_ ," it sounds.

A tall beefy man dressed in all black with prison style tattoos greets them. 20 grimy looking men stand behind him, all eager to kill anything that moves. Emma cowers back. She recognizes the faces. They were the men that stole Eli away from her…The Wolves.

"Welcome back survivors…"the beefy giant chuckles.


End file.
